


Jolt

by honestgrins



Series: To Rely on the Kindness of Strangers [232]
Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Canon-ish, F/M, Prison Worlds (Vampire Diaries)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:21:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25928059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honestgrins/pseuds/honestgrins
Summary: Anonymous asked: klaus/caroline "I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD" + reluctant feelings
Relationships: Caroline Forbes/Klaus Mikaelson
Series: To Rely on the Kindness of Strangers [232]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/378628
Comments: 11
Kudos: 87





	1. Chapter 1

“Bonnie, don’t you _dare_ -”

But the light around her grew to a blinding white, and her body felt crushed as her head seemed to spin. Suddenly, Caroline was standing in the clearing all by herself. “No,” she gasped. Sinking to the ground, she wrapped her arms around her legs and rocked. “No, no, nonono-”

She didn’t know how long she’d been sitting there when the familiar sound of a speeding vampire rustled the leaves around her. Unable to make herself look up, she pressed her lips to her knee to keep from screaming.

Her obvious breakdown wasn’t enough to put Elena and Stefan off, though. Without hesitation, she was carried off to the boarding house. They plied her with warmed blood and general comfort, but she still couldn’t speak without bursting into tears. Nothing they did could make her feel any better about leaving Bonnie behind in a damn prison world.

“You have to call him,” Elena said, her hand never pausing as she rubbed Caroline’s back. “He doesn’t need to come here and make this worse.”

Stefan toyed with his hair anxiously. “Yeah, he’ll just turn around because I tell him to. Sounds true, sure.”

She didn’t need to ask, not when it seemed so obvious. But it somehow felt unbelievable, too.

Klaus was coming, and he was coming for her.

Like thinking his name had summoned him, the Original Hybrid himself burst in through the front door, his eyes trained on her. Hope filled her chest, wanting nothing more than to direct that determination of his toward rescuing Bonnie. If anyone could manage it from this side, it would be him.

Then, he ripped her from her friends’ arms and pressed her up to the wall, snarling her face. “Where the hell have you been? For months, I’ve had witches scouring the earth for any sign of you.”

Caroline fought against his hold, her rage rising to match his. “You should have been looking for Bonnie!” she yelled, tears rushing down her cheeks. “She’s the one who got me here, and now we have to go get her!” Struggling to breathe through her anger and panic and grief, she tore at him with nails until she had clawed her arms around him. “She saved me, and I need to bring her home.”

Holding her close, Klaus was breathing erratically, too. His hand kept brushing over her hair as she sagged into him. “Shhh,” he soothed while she cried. Hoarse, his voice was quiet in her ear. “I’m sorry, love. I’m sorry, I thought you were dead.”

She shook her head, not bothering to pull away. Elena and Stefan were trading worried glances, but she didn’t care. “When the Other Side collapsed, we ended up in a prison world,” she explained through hiccups. “She called it a pocket, or something, but we were living the same day over and over until she figured out a way to get us out.” Miserable, she cried harder. “ _Me_ out.”

“We’ll get her, too,” Klaus promised, his arms warm around her. “I’m just glad you’re safe.”

With his lips pressed to her hair and his heart beating in sync with hers, Caroline almost believed that she was.


	2. Shock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous asked: Prequel to Jolt- Klaus’ reaction to hearing Caroline disappearing and everything that happens to when he hears about her reappearing

Klaus usually considered himself to be a determined, singularly-focused individual. He had plans upon plans to remove any obstacle in his way.

What a conundrum, then, when the obstacle plaguing him for months was a noted absence in Mystic Falls. It was altogether impossible to remove a missing element, even for him.

The Ripper has been the one to break the news, and Klaus predictably took his anger out on the messenger. Once Stefan came round, he carefully listened to every detail of the situation and made him repeat it twice. In the months since Caroline’s supposed death along with the Bennett witch, he’d mobilized a number of covens to investigate the fallen Other Side and what became of the souls trapped there.

And yet, no answer came that didn’t leave him bloodying whatever witch failed him. Failed _her_.

His family had noticed the pernicious distraction at the edges of his attention, but wisely chose not to bring it up. Even Kol let the matter lie, a level of tact that proved how hopeless they read his cause to be. Caroline was gone, and she took whatever future they might have had with her.

Alcohol and violence weren’t the healthiest coping mechanisms, or so he’d been told, but they certainly allowed him an outlet for the helpless rage he felt. Grief was an odd thing for an immortal being to confront; death happens every day, why does this one life snuffed our bother him so? Thinking about it only worsened his mood, as the witches discovered with every lacking update - until now.

“Something big just tore through the tatters of the Other Side,” Kol explained, having made himself useful as a liaison. “Celestial energy can boost any magic, but it takes a powerful witch to channel it like this.”

His fangs dropped at the vague statement. “Speak plainly. What does the coven think has occurred?”

“If their spirits can be trusted, a vampire dripping with the potency of an eclipse appeared in the woods neighboring Mystic Falls, as though out of thin air.”

Klaus was dialing before Kol even finished. “Stefan, she’s in Mystic Falls somewhere. Find her and keep her safe. I’m on my way.”

He couldn’t get there soon enough to see her with his own eyes.


End file.
